FIG. 1 illustrate the positioning (or geo-locating) errors for a point P of an area, induced by measurement uncertainties in strongly oblique exposure conditions encountered, for example, in aero-terrestrial applications in which the optronics system is situated close to the ground compared to the distance to the object (airborne, the ratio of the distance to the object to flight altitude is in the order of 5—and even more—for low-altitude flights or terrestrial applications).
FIG. 1A illustrates a planimetric error εP induced by a measurement uncertainty εh of the vertical position h of the optronics system.
The following applies:εP=εh/tan θ=(r/h)εh≈εh/θ
An error εh of 20 m for example, for an altitude greater than that of the object by 20 kft, induces, for the positioning of a point P situated at 30 km, an error εP of 120 m.
FIG. 1B illustrates an error εP induced by a measurement uncertainty εθ of the bearing by which the point P is seen from the optronics system, i.e. for an orientation error in the vertical plane of camera optical axis (or COA).
The following applies:εP=r·εθ/sin θ=r·ε74·(h2+r2)1/2/h=r2·εθ(1+(h/r)2)1/2≈r2·εθ/h 
In the same conditions as in the preceding example, an error εθ of 1 mrd for example, which corresponds to a very favorable case, induces an error δθ on the positioning of the point P of 150 m.
These errors may be aggregated to ultimately introduce an error of approximately 270 m for the positioning of the point P.
Such errors are found nevertheless also in low-altitude terrestrial optronics systems (helicopters, mini UAVs) which are fixed, for example, at the top of a vehicle mast or a ship's mast. However, most of these systems have to acquire and characterize the positioning of objects moving at great distance with decametric efficiency.
The influence of measurement errors on the geo-locating error of a point P has just been illustrated. Geo-referencing consists of geo-locating all the points of an imaged area and not a single point.
To be able to have a geo-referencing of decametric class in the above mentioned conditions, it is usual practice to use post-processing operations on the ground generally performed by a specialist operator who realigns the images acquired by means of geographic references (or landmark by preferably having world or at least sufficient coverage for the expressed requirements). However, these landmarks, generally taken from exposures close to the vertical, are difficult to pair with the strongly oblique image automatically, and are subject to the aging of the information.
One of the difficulties is to acquire this performance rapidly and at any point of the globe without having to use true world coverage information, which is difficult to pair with the image straight away, but not subject to the aging of the information.
One solution, implemented in a related field, for establishing digital elevation models, or DEM, consists in performing, using a in flight laser, a number of beam distance and direction measurements in favorable acquisition conditions. In practice, this application is performed with low exposure constraints making it possible to acquire the information in conditions which are close to the vertical and with a fairly low flight altitude so that the orientation errors are not too detrimental for direct location performance. The systems used do not generally offer any associated imaging and, when they do have it, the two systems are not coupled. The aim of these airborne laser plotting techniques is solely to use distance measurements in order to reconstruct DEMs and the coupling with an image is not provided in the applications encountered which are all to do with distant acquisition conditions of strongly oblique aims. Moreover, these approaches favorably lend themselves to the updating of information produced and to thereof control the stereo plotting sites which involve producing, in ground stations and under the control of an operator, digital terrain models (DTM) and ortho-images on the imaged areas.
Another solution commonly used to produce ortho-images, DTMs, in order to ultimately produce geographic maps and vector databases (DB), uses aero-triangulation techniques based on acquisitions of optical or radar images, from aircraft or from satellites.
The sensors on satellites are commonly used to cover large areas based on image acquisition and position and attitude measurements; also, this is done on the scale of a territory and more. The control of the internal consistency of the optical images, based on the observation of the forms of the objects of the scene after rectification, is produced by means of a matrix detector. It is ensured by using the trajectory and/or scanning techniques, while ensuring an overlapping and a contiguous reconstruction of the information which can then be oriented as a whole based on a few landmarks in order to correct the remaining orientation biases. These spatio-triangulation techniques are also indicated when the acquisitions are produced from observation or remote detection satellites.
The aero-triangulation applications correspond to acquisitions with wide measurement bases (a base being the displacement of the detector between two images) and therefore to a relatively low rate of acquisition (of the order of 0.1 Hz) compared to strategic applications (some tens of Hz) reaching an acquiring rate of approximately 10,000 images in 3 minutes.
Here again, the images are processed and used in a ground station under the control of an operator. In his or her work producing information, he or she also has:                access to external reference data having an already qualified geo-referencing        the facility to identify the objects and the relevant details of the image and associate them with the reference data in order to have landmark points in the image in order to enhance thereof the geo-referencing.        
The enhancing of the geo-referencing of the images by an operator on the ground constitutes a process that is effective with regard to the result and, at the same time, restricted with respect to the implementation time, the need for reference geographic data, the correlating work and time involved—even more when the information associated with the image to be geo-referenced is of lesser quality.
The aero-triangulation works determine the absolute orientation of all the images. This makes it possible, if necessary, to assemble them as a single image (or block of images) and to correct the result by means of inputting homologous or/and landmark points as well as to provide a manual or visual performance check. The need for an operator in the loop to control the quality of assembly of the images and of the geo-referencing of an area covered by a number of images is unfeasible in the conditions of use of applications notably requiring a much shorter implementation time, close to real time.
In addition to this performance problem linked to the exposure conditions (or CDPV), there is the need to have:                a better resolution of the images in order to view details, that is to say, an enhancement of the resolution with which the ground distance is represented in the image, or “GSD” (Ground Sample Distance”), and        a greater coverage on the ground, that is to say, an increase of the areas imaged so as to be of use to operations of an environmental, security, strategic or tactical nature, without in any way penalizing the range of acquisition of the information to be geo-referenced.        
The coverage of large areas is ensured by displacing the detector or/and by using larger detectors or/and greater fields.
The coverage of a large area by a satellite means is facilitated by its displacement in its orbit and a good relative quality between the exposure parameters because:                the quality of the positioning relies on measurements and a permanent control of the trajectography constrained by the celestial mechanics equations. These allow for a simple and rigid modeling of its form over time,        the consistency of attitude through the stability of the trajectory and associated control means.        
For the terrestrial applications, the displacement of the detector is not always possible and its size is sometimes limited with regard to the areas to be acquired. The coverage of large areas by an aeroterrestrial means is more difficult since:                in airborne cueing, the trajectory is ensured by a maneuvering platform,        in terrestrial cueing, the platform is fixed or has little mobility.        
The use of large detectors, with materials of well-controlled quality, first of all favored the use of array detectors. However, the difficulty associated with finely knowing the pointing over time (between the directions of the image corresponding to the direction of the array) degrades the internal consistency of the image (which allows for control of its geometry) and therefore one of the strong characteristics of optronics. Moreover, the integration time has to be reduced in order to be adapted to the scrolling effects linked to the displacements of the detectors relative to the imaged area.
The possibility of using greater fields to cover large areas runs counter to the requirement in GSD for a given acquisition distance range. To remedy this constraint, rapid scanning-based acquisition modes such as frame-step (or step staring) are used and the number of detectors on one and the same platform is increased.
For the military applications, large quantities of well-resolved images have to be able to be geo-referenced rapidly.